this is a rare Jaeger LeCoultre Master Mariner (Reference 24001) from 1973, coming with extract of the JLC archives. this 37mm steel automatic chronometer is extremely interesting, not only because it appears so rarely on the market, but also in a historical kind of way. it came out in 1973, the exact same year the AP royal oak 5402 hit the market, and even three years before the patek philippe nautilus 3700 was released in 1976. It´s clear that this is one of the very first sportchic watches with integrated bracelet ever, and it is a design template in our opinion. while the royal oak and the nautilus have become extremely succesfull icons of their brands, only a small minority of collectors is even aware of the existance of the jlc reference 24001. if you look closer at the watch, there are so many design similarities to the famous brothers, like for example the stepped dial (nautilus) or the two sharp edges on the case sides (royal oak) and many more. up to today we unfortunately couldn´t find out who the designer of the jlc master mariner 24001 was, but you can surely imagine who we consider to be in the inner circle of the suggestions. it´s also a fact that both movements of the original nautilus and royal oak where refined jaeger lecoultre 920 calibers, so there was always a strong connection between those highend brands. the production of the jlc 24001 ended after only two years, in 1975, as an unsuccessful victim of the quartz-crisis. only a few hundred must have been produced in steel. Powered by the perfectly running JLC 906 (same caliber as in the vacheron constantin royal chronometer), the whole watch is in absolute original condition with only minor signs of wearing.